Francis B. Spinola

Francis Barretto Spinola (19 March 1821-14 April 1891) was a member of the US House of Representatives (D) from New York's 10th congressional district from 1887 to 1891, succeeding Abram S. Hewitt and preceding William Bourke Cochran. Spinola, the first Italian-American to be elected to the House, was also an American Civil War general.

Biography
Francis Barretto Spinola was born in Old Field, Long Island, New York on 19 March 1821, the son of a prosperous farmer and oysterman from Madeira, Portugal (of Ligurian descent) and the granddaughter of an American Revolutionary War colonel. Spinola became a lawyer in Brooklyn and a member of the State Assembly from 1856 to 1858 and the State Senate from 1858 to 1861, serving as a member of the conservative Democratic Party. Spinola was Commissioner of New York Harbor when the American Civil War broke out in 1861, and he was appointed Brigadier-General of Volunteers on 2 October 1862. He commanded two brigades in attempts to relieve Washington, North Carolina from a Confederate siege from March to April 1863, and he took command of the Excelsior Brigade on 11 July 1863 after William R. Brewster fell ill. He was wounded at the Battle of Manassas Gap on 23 July 1863 as the Union Army of the Potomac pursued Robert E. Lee's retreating Army of Northern Virginia after the Battle of Gettysburg, and Spinola did not hold a command until he was mustered out of service in August 1865. Spinola became a banker, insurance agent, and Congressman, becoming the first Italian-American to be elected to the US House of Representatives. Spinola died in Washington DC in 1891 at the age of 70, still serving in the US Congress.